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Alive and thriving
We must always be looking to the next generation: the continued health of music demands it. So the Ebor Singers and their conductor Paul Gameson deserve plaudits for their new carol competition for young composers.
The two leading works were unveiled on Sunday in a concert that aligned Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, in its original, treble-voice version, with other carols of the last century.
Topaz Pauls's setting of Hush! My Dear, by the 18th-century hymn-writer Isaac Watts, was a worthy winner. A pretty melody, heard at first from a soprano soloist, framed the piece, with a contrasting minor section between: a neat shape, easily comprehended, full of promise. Runner-up Ester Lusty gave Herrick's What Sweeter Music? more hymn-like treatment, pleasingly harmonised.
It was a pity that the opening and closing plainchants in the Britten were not sung in procession, given the ideal surroundings. Still, after a slightly boisterous start, the ladies settled into an easier stride, gentled along by Melanie Jones's harp. Solo voices were relaxed and ensemble was tight. Over-fast, Deo Gracias lost rhythmic excitement. But the overall effect was vividly evocative.
Interleaving the 'O' antiphons with the remaining carols - following the example of St John's College Choir, Cambridge - worked well. Leighton's setting of the Coventry Carol was beautifully delivered, set off by Louise Eekelaar's clear soprano. And the stunning final chords of Howells' A Spotless Rose were impeccably tuned. The carol is alive and thriving.
(Martin Dreyer, December 19 2006, Yorkshire Evening Press)
If this is outreach, let's have plenty more.
OUTREACH is one of those buzzwords without which no application for arts funding is complete.
But it can have genuine meaning, never more so than on Saturday when the Ebor Singers devoted six events to the Siege of York in the summer of 1644. Walks, lectures and concerts one involving two local schools celebrated what proved a defining event in the English Civil War.
continued...
Music For Troubled Times, the culminating concert, brought the love of Charles I for his French queen, Henrietta-Maria, to the foreground, with extracts from their letters read by Emily Allen and Christian McKay. The backdrop came from composers largely associated with Charles's court, notably William Lawes. His three-part round, See How Cawood's Dragon Looks, reminded us of the Royalist garrison stationed at the archbishop's castle there. Two vigorous psalms must also have roused the troops. But the best of the music symbolised the anguish that divided country and families alike. We felt the pain in William Child's dissonances, tenderly shaped. Still more telling were the raw harmonies of George Jeffreys's How Wretched is the State.
Paul Gameson and his singers deserve warm congratulations. If this is outreach, let's have plenty more.
(Martin Dreyer, May 29 2006, Yorkshire Evening Press)